Related Links

This Week (April 4-7)
Jeanette's Bolden's UCLA women and Art Venegas' Bruin men track and field teams travel to Austin this week for the 74th running of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays. This year's relays will feature more than 5,000 high school, collegiate and professional athletes competing in 117 events at the four-day meet (Wed., April 4-Sat., April 7). Results can be obtained at www.TexasSports.com.

Last Week (March 31)
Last Saturday, March 31, UCLA's women and men track and field teams defeated UC Irvine, Azusa Pacific and CS Los Angeles in quadrangular scoring at Drake Stadium.

In women's competition, Bruin senior Christina Tolson, from Fountain Valley and the 2001 NCAA Indoor shot put champion , won three throwing events - shot put (54-6 3/4), discus (145-4) and hammer (203-10). A double winner in the field events was UCLA junior Darnesha Griffith, who won the high jump (5-10) and the triple jump (38-10 1/2). CS Los Angeles junior Nicole Duncan, the NCAA Div. II Indoor long jump champion, won the long jump (20-4 1/2) and the 100m (11.78). The Bruin women won both relays (4 X 100m, 45.15, 4 X 400m, 3:43.64, outdoor season best), with senior Michelle Perry running on both relays and winning the 100m hurdles (13.75). UCLA junior Tracy O'Hara won the collegiate pole vault (13-5 1/2), with Canada's Stephanie McCann, competing unattached, setting a Canadian National record (13-9 1/4).

In men's competition, Bruin freshman Juaune Armon, from San Jose, won both the long (24-0 1/4) and triple jumps (48-9) in personal-best marks. Bruin sophomore Scott Wiegand won the shot put (57-2 1/4) and the discus (161-6). The Bruins won both relays (4 X 100m, 40.33, season-best, 4 X 400m, 3:12.35, season-best), with junior Michael Lipscomb running on the 4 X 100m relay and winning the 200m (21.31) and senior Bryan Harrison running on the 4 X 400m relay and victorious in the 100m (10.61, season-best).

Also last Saturday, the Bruins had several throwers compete at the UC San Diego Throwing Invitational and two men's distance runners at the Stanford Invitational. In the men's discus invitational at UCSD, junior Scott Moser placed fourth, with a personal-best and new Bruin junior class record of 206-8 (the old mark was 204-2, set by John Godina, 1994) and redshirt freshman Dan Ames was seventh (personal-best 196-8). In the women's discus invitational, sophomore Chaniqua Ross was seventh (173-11, season-best) and freshman Lara Saye was ninth (168-11, personal-best). The women's discus invite had two former UCLA standouts place one-two - Seilala Sua was first (215-4) and Suzy Powell second (209-8).

At Stanford, senior Will Bernaldo and junior Bryan Green set personal-bests and NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the 10,000m. Green placed 26th, with a time of 29:25.20 and Bernaldo was 32nd, 29:39.26.

Looking Ahead (April 14)
On Saturday, April 14, UCLA will host its final home meet of the season at Drake Stadium, against Nebraska and CS Northridge. In this week's Trackwire National Top 25, the Bruin women are No. 2 (behind No. 1 USC) and the UCLA men are tied for No. 20 (with George Mason). The Nebraska men are not rated and the Cornhusker women are 15th.

UCLA's women's head coach Jeanette Bolden is in her eighth season as head coach of the UCLA women's team. For the last two seasons (2000/2001), she has directed the Bruins to the NCAA Indoor titles. It was UCLA's (women or men) first ever indoor crowns.

At the NCAA Outdoor Championships under Bolden, the Bruins have finished no lower than third on six occasions (2000-3rd, 1999-2nd, 1998-2nd, 1997-3rd, 1996-9th, 1995-2nd, 1994-3rd).

She has also directed UCLA to six Pac-10 titles, including the last four in a row.

In 2000, she was named the Pac-10 (fourth year in a row and sixth time in her Bruin head coaching career) and USTCA West Region (fourth consecutive, fifth time in her career) Women's Coach of the Year.

Bolden 's career dual mark is 59-1 (losing the first dual meet of her career this season to Washington State, WSU 85-UCLA 78 on March 17 at Berkeley). The last time UCLA's women suffered a dual defeat was in 1992, losing back-to-back duals to Houston, 70-66 and USC, 80-30. Since then, the UCLA women had won 64 consecutive duals, including 52 straight at Drake Stadium.

Bruin men's head coach Art Venegas is in his second season as the UCLA men's head coach.

Venegas was a Bruin assistant coach for 18 years before taking over the head men's position from Bob Larsen before the 2000 season.

He is a world-renowned coach in the throws. During his Bruin tenure, he directed the UCLA men's/women's throwing corps to 29 NCAA individual titles and in the 1990s, Bruin throwers had won 38 Pac-10 championships.

Bruin Headlines

The 2001/2000 NCAA Indoor titles for the Bruin women were the first in school history (women or men). UCLA is the first west coast school to win the women's NCAA Indoor and just the third overall when combining the men's Indoor champions (USC in 1967 and '72 and Washington State in 1977).